The book version of “The Princess Diaries” was set in New York, but Disney took the movie version to San Francisco, introducing Anne Hathaway in her acting debut and showing off this converted firehouse in the Excelsior neighborhood.
The 1911 firehouse that was converted into a two-unit home is now listed for $2.6 million in one of the nation’s hottest housing markets. It’s on the market for the first time since the city auctioned it to the current owner in 1976, years after retiring the building that housed Engine Company 43.
The owners bought the abandoned firehouse in what was, at the time, a working-class neighborhood so they could use the empty lot next door to build a boat. While they worked on their project, they cleaned out, fixed up and rented the firehouse to a menagerie of creative types: ballet dancers, sculptors, a jewelry-maker and a filmmaker, said the agent representing the listing, Grace Shohet of Hill & Co Real Estate.
The firehouse is in near-original condition, with two brass fire poles, a huge spiral staircase and a bathroom with four sinks and two showers. Curbed San Francisco first spotted the listing.
Horse-drawn carriages once parked in the lower level, which has 18-foot ceilings, and a mezzanine level that is now the kitchen was the original hayloft. The building is at the top of the hill so that horses hurrying to a fire could get a downhill start.
The upper level includes a great room and access, by ladder, to the hose tower, with views of the city. The sellers are listing it as the Excelsior neighborhood, just blocks from the Mission District, is picking up in popularity with technology workers moving in. The empty lot, included in the sale, is likely to be developed. So while the building’s history is significant, its future awaits.
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Emily Heffter covers celebrity real estate and other real estate news for Zillow Blog. See more of her work here.